All for One
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: she was from a world where hero's didn't exist and humans had no rights and were treated as nothing more than toys. One's worth is measured both by by talent. Mizuki was lucky to be blessed with a multitude of talents. meeting Toshinori and the rest of the heros is a novel experience. one that she hopes never ends. my first story. R&R please since I don't know what i'm doing.
1. Chapter 1

It was raining the first time that he and his brothers/sisters in arms first came into contact with her. The being known as Mizuki Hanna Yukimora. She appeared out of nowhere in a bright blue-green flash of light, at the end of an intense battle where several civilian people had wound up injured.

He and several other hero's present had had to cover their eyes to protect it from the flash and calmly waited for it to die down before dropping their hands away from their faces, half expecting to see a gas explosion or something else equally disastrous when they finally managed to make out the small figure curled up on the ground and froze.

They simply couldn't help it. They had never seen anything so horrific before in each of their long careers as hero's, and as such they were in not only a state of inner turmoil, _outrage_ and just flat out shock- but they were so upset that for a moment all of their knowledge and training went completely out of the window.

All that they could do was watch the scene before them in utter abject horror and mentally rage about what they were seeing.

Of course, this was back when they hadn't known Mizuki's name. Much less anything else about her. And to be perfectly honest...even today, after learning what they had of her and becoming her friends and comrades and teachers- they still would have felt rage over the tragedies suffered.

Because it was in that moment, however brief- that they were reminded of just how _human_ , despite their enormous strengths and other powers- and _fragile_ that they were.

And that was the crux of the matter right there.

This girl... No- this seemingly insignificant civilian _stranger_ , had reminded them all of what they had in their arrogance, long forgotten.

It was around this time that several of them seemed to recover enough of their senses to make their way over to the girl, the first of which to reach her was All Might whom knelt down on the ground next to her and quickly took stock of her still spurting injuries, the large pool of blood gathering underneath her on the wet ground, the bruised and battered face, the broken bones, and the eerily silent and still blood covered little blue blanket covered bundle tightly clutched to her chest as the girl stirred ever so slightly.

He could see that her consciousness was fading in and out. The possibility that she was even now dying right before his very eyes, weighed heavily on his heart.

Perhaps just as heavily as the fact that she was holding a dead infant. Or rather what seemed to be what was left of one. Part of it's body was missing and the rest was just...a mass of shredded flesh and blood.

Looking at the girl again, he gauged her age to be between seventeen and nineteen years old. So the possibility that the child was hers made his chest ache.

A mother should never outlive her child. Not even if it's by several moments.

It was simply cruel.

She had long dark hair, black or perhaps a dark brown- it was hard to say. Her skin between the bruises and such was a chalky white (probably from blood loss) and for all intents and purposes, she might have been a hauntingly lovely young woman.

But now...

Turquoise eyes, not so unlike his own fluttered open again and locked with his own for a moment as her mouth worked as if she wished to speak. This made him cautiously reach out and gently brush some of the blood from the corner of her pale lips before she managed to choke/sob out softly in a desperate sounding voice that was much to weak to carry very far.

"I-I got m-my- baby?" It seemed more a question than anything leading him to believe that she was more than a little bit disoriented. Again, it was probably because of the blood loss. But there was little that he could do about that right now considering that moving her would only kill her all that much faster.

So instead he simply nodded his head somberly.

She gave him a broken looking smile before uttering the word, "Good. I-I was w-worried that I was dying for nothing..." She took several shuddering breaths, coughed up some blood and with a pained winch, lay her head back down and lamented in what could have been an almost comical way if the situation hadn't have been so grave. _"Why is this taking so long?"_

Unbidden, his lips twitched a little bit. Not because her complaint was actually funny. But because he had never heard someone complain about the speed in which they were dying before. Didn't normal people usually want to live forever or some such nonsense?

He himself only had a few years left thanks to the injuries that he sustained in a battle with a villain about eight or so years ago. And that was only if he didn't do anything stupid to piss away his remaining time.

Something that he often had to fight against given his natural bouts of stupidity. After all, he was in no big hurry to stand before his maker. Suddenly deciding to change the subject and hopefully distract her a little bit from her loss and her impending fate, he asked. "So what's your name?"

"M-Mizuki." She stammered out from between wet, ragged breaths. It sounded as if her lungs were now filling with liquid. _It won't be long now_ , he thought to himself sadly as he attempted to give her a smile, but failed even as he said.

"Mizuki is a nice name."

"Not r-really..." She wheezed before tacking on slowly, "I _hate_ my name. What about you? What is you're name?"

Now under normal circumstances he would never entertain the idea of giving his birth name, choosing instead to continue to let the world and everyone in it know him only as his alter ego. But since he doubted that she would be yelling his secret from the highest mountain top in her current condition, he decided to forego protocol and simply tell her.

Impending death and all aside, she gave him the impression that he could trust her to keep quiet and not tell anyone. As the saying goes, she would take the knowledge with her to the grave.

"Shh. You can never tell anyone, but my name is Toshinori." He said quietly as he put a finger to his lips. She gave him another broken smile and muttered,

"You don't have to worry about me Toshi-kun..." After which she seemed to finally slip into unconsciousness as several medics finally came running up to them at the behest of several others present.

Toshinori sat there in the mud, uncaring of whether or not he was in the way at the moment and let the medics prepare Mizuki as best as they could for travel. It took them far longer than he would have liked.

Thirty seven minutes was a damned eternity when one was holding their breath and awaiting the worst. Yet somehow they had managed to semi stabilize her condition and start an IV full of fluids and pain killers to make her more comfortable (just in case) and then carefully shifted her body onto a stretcher and then carefully secured her to it as he slowly stood up and _oh-so-gently_ pried what was left of Mizuki's infant son from her arms and then stood back and watched as the medics began to race for more stable ground.

Leaving him standing there with the bloody remains of the infant in his large hands, feeling like all kinds a colossal fuck up. Never before had the hero All Might failed so spectacularly to save or help someone before. Not in all his years as a pillar of justice nor a symbol of hope.

And as he stood there, desperately trying to hold back the urge to rage on Mizuki and her son's behalf- he took a few moments to look around the decimated area in which he and the others had been fighting and wondered if she had lived in this area.

It had, at one time long before the battle that had occurred today, been a bustling and lively place full of people, plants, and life. Now all that remained were the barely there and still crumbling buildings, demolished streets, destroyed plant life- the place looked as if it were irreparably damaged.

And that meant that if she had lived in the area- then she had lost far more then her son and possibly her own life. She had lost her home, her car, any and all identifying records and ID's and passports. Any money that she had had from work or wealth that she had initially owned before the battle would be lost to her.

She would not have the means to bury her son if she lived.

Not to mention any way to pay for her own funeral expenses if she were to pass. Everything lost, if it wasn't claimed within an allotted time frame would be claimed by the government and placed beyond her reach.

Feeling himself grit his teeth in anger, he began to devise ways to get her what she needed if she should survive her wounds. After all those who oversaw the hero's that protected the people had programs in place to ensure that those who lost everything had ways of getting as much as they lost back so that they could get back on their feet again.

This included homes, clothing, food, medical care, funeral expenses, help finding replacement jobs, providing education ect. He could help her out by starting the paperwork and pushing it through as soon as he was sure that she would live.

Glancing down at what was left of the infant, his heart broke a little bit all over again even as he said, "She'll be okay. You're mother will need time and a lot of TLC, but she will definitely be okay. You'll see."

 _I will help her learn to be happy again, little one. This I swear to you._


	2. Chapter 2

Toshinori was no stranger to hospitals regardless of which form he was in. So when he spent the next six days camping out in the waiting room of the nearest hospital where Mizuki had been taken, well- nobody really thought anything of it. Though some of his friends dropped by from time to time to check up on him and Mizuki both.

They wouldn't always say it aloud, but there was just something about the young woman that grabbed their attention that day in the rain and simply wouldn't let go.

He didn't say much of anything about the weird feeling either, but he felt it too. Though the fact that he was the only one camping out in the hospital waiting room alone, wasn't entirely lost on him. If anything he found it a mite peculiar and at one point had even asked her doctor if the girl had a quirk or something that simply made him feel so attached.

The doctor had merely shook her head no, and explained that there was no such quirk. And then had carefully and slowly tacked on- as if he had taken far too many blows to the head or something- that Mizuki had absolutely no noticeable nor hidden quirks to speak of.

She was a full blooded _civilian_.

She had then mentioned something about a few anomalies in her blood- it was a miracle that she was even alive. But of course, by this point he wasn't really listening to her anymore.

He simply couldn't fathom a _civilian_ woman suffering such injuries, even for the sake of her child- and living through them for as long as she had already. In fact the mere idea was more than a little bit outlandishly _beyond_ all comprehension.

Now he knew that ordinary human beings could do amazing thing if they really put their minds to something, but he wasn't sure about the details of what they were truly capable of. So one the sixth day, after going by Mizuki's room to check on her, he then decided that he'd go to the local library a little ways down the street and begin doing a little bit of research on the abilities of quirkless individuals.

The walk to the library was a peaceful one, if not a little bit boring to him. There was only two bank robberies along the way that he'd had to thwart before continuing his trip. But aside from that, all had gone remarkably well.

Upon reaching the library he made quick work of finding the service desk and asking about the information he would need to do his research and then once that was done, went to search it out.

The only real problem that he had with the whole endeavor was that there wasn't a whole lot of material written on people without quirks. In fact, the information that the library had on them wasn't at all what he had been hoping to find.

Medical encylopedia's did nothing to help him figure out the mystery that was Mizuki. Though they did list a whole slew of medical conditions, symptoms, and how to treat many of them- they still yielded no answers to his questions.

Huffing slightly in disappointment he was tempted to toss the books across the library. But that would be considered rude. Not to mention that he'd be wasting his strength for nothing. So he didn't bother.

Instead he left the books where they lay, and simply got up and started walking back the way that he'd came. Deciding that he should return to the hospital just in case. Once again, the trip was boring.

This time he only had to stop a car in a high speed chase by flipping it over his head so that it went airborne for several moments before finally slamming into the ground behind him, eliciting screams and such from the occupants of the vehicle before they quickly attempted to scramble from the car and run.

* * *

Shota Aizawa stood outside of the hospital room of the young woman that Toshinori had decided to take responsibility for, sipping on his cup of hot chocolate (because the coffee machine was broken, again) and thinking.

Now don't get him wrong- to some extent he could understand Toshinori's need to take responsibility for the frail, injured young woman. He had been present the day of the battle and had witness the two making some sort of odd connection, among other things as she had lain in a puddle of mud and blood; her uninjured hand tightly clutching her dead son.

He had stayed present when Toshinori had handed the infant over to the mortician to be taken care of until she got better and could at least attend the child's funeral- hell he had stood outside of the room where the autopsy was preformed and had heard the same thing that his friend had.

 _"Injuries consistent with torture. Whoever did this, didn't kill the child quickly- They made sure that the poor thing died screaming and choking on his own blood."_

Of course this had _alarmed_ them on several levels. Mostly because torture wasn't something that any of the hero's that they knew, was all that familiar with. Which only seemed to raise far more questions about the mysterious young woman.

Watching as a nurse slipped by him and into the room to do the usual- pulse check, blood pressure, lungs, switch out her IV's and a write down some stuff before finally drawing some blood and then taking a moment to fuss with her blanket before finally leaving.

Giving him the much needed chance to ask about her condition.

The nurse must have known the drill, cause she saw him coming a mile away and smiled warmly at him as she stepped out of the room and waited for him to ask, "How is she?" before responding kindly.

"She is looking much better today. The doctor will be by later on today to look over her injuries and see whether or not her life is still in danger. But I have to say that despite the lack of infection, and just going by her current vitals- I think he'll have some really good news."

Shota grinned at the woman and would have grabbed her up and spun her around in his arms if not for the fact that he had just accidentally crushed his styrofoam cup in his hand, spilling what was left of his hot chocolate all over himself.

 _"Ouch!"_


	3. Chapter 3

Shota had just gotten his fingers taken care of by the nice frantic nurse whom had then not only given him a new hot chocolate, but her phone number before skipping off to do...uh...nurse stuff. Like sponge bathing someone. _God I would do anything for a woman with such perky assets to sponge bathe me._ He thought dirtily as he sipped on his hot chocolate.

And burned his tongue with it before scrunching his nose up and turning to look for a garbage can to toss it in when he froze upon seeing Toshinori standing there with his arms over his tiny chest, glaring at him slightly.

 _"What are you doing here?"_ The question sounded more like an accusation to his ears instead of a friendly question. Which was peculiar given the fact that he knew that Toshinori was downright territorial about only _two_ or maybe three things in life.

So why did he suddenly get the feeling from the other man that he had just encroached on something that he didn't want him anywhere near? Like some precious family heirloom or sort of prize?

Ignoring the feeling, Shota settled his gaze on his friend and smiled slightly as he said, "Hello Toshi. How are you?"

His friend didn't respond to his question right away, and while others might perceive this as a sort of insult- Shota didn't. He knew from experience that proper lack of rest and such pretty much de-evolved the man into a monkey like state of being. Though he was impressed by the fact that he was stringing more than two coherent words together this time.

The last time that this had happened, Toshinori had basically become a caveman and started swinging from ceiling fans and such.

It'd been as amusing as it was sort of sad.

However what had made the whole event more than just amusing/sad was the fact that his friend recalled nothing of it and hadn't believed him or anyone else when they had asked or said something in reference to that particular event. Which is why the time after that, when it happened again- they video taped him.

And again, once the event was over he'd had no memory of what had happened. So they had decided to fix that and sat Toshinori down and watched the tape and then promptly broken the DVD player and the small flat screen TV and then stormed off.

In truth it was a fun sort of game that everyone liked to play with the man when he was in such a state. However there was nothing funny about that smoldering, _don't-fuck-with-me_ stare that he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of.

Coughing slightly, he then shifted his attention to why he had come here today. Sure it had been partially to check up on Toshinori and the woman, but only just.

No, he'd come bearing gifts from Toshinori and the government officials that oversaw the hero's.

The first thing that he had, was the woman's new ID's and such. Since neither he nor Toshi knew her middle or last name, they had decided that it was best to wait for her to wake up to finish filling out the papers. However they had gotten copies of her medical files from when she'd been admitted to the hospital as well as given her a new social security number.

The second thing that was taken care of was her new home.

It was a spacious loft apartment with cream colored walls, some nice expensive furniture, some different kinds of makeup and perfumes, shoes and even a wardrobe full of clothing both casual and formal. Meant to fit any and _all_ events in her life.

They had had some of the women her size, that worked with them, do some shopping for her and Toshinori had even tacked on the specific order- No slutty clothes (slutty of course being no shirts that showed nipple, or even excessive amounts of boob. and no skirts that didn't cover her crotch or ass.)- before anyone had been unleashed upon any of the shopping districts.

And Shota had to say, the 'no slutty clothes' thing had worked out beautifully in the girl's favor. When she was finally well enough to go to her new home, she would find all sorts of goodies awaiting her.

Another thing that Shota came with were the documents that Toshinori needed to sign off on as far as how much money the women got every two weeks or so to live off of until she managed to get back on her feet again. He'd peeked at the documents a while ago and damn near walked into a wall while choking on his own tongue.

Ten thousand every two weeks was a bit too rich for his taste. He'd have simply left the woman with a few hundred and made sure that she was damned grateful to even have that if it had been him, but then half of the money going to her was coming straight out of Toshi's considerable paycheck.

Which was very generous of the man to share.

Very, _very_ generous if somewhat misguided on Toshinori's end. The government funds alone would have been enough to set the woman up. After all she wouldn't be buying a new home, nor anything like furnishings, clothing, ect...anytime soon.

And her new home was rent free. Had functioning electricity, heating and air/water. And furnishings. Nice comfortable ones. On top of which there were already purchased clothing and such.

What could Toshinori possibly think that the woman needed all of the extra zero's for? What exactly did his friend feel he needed to give her so much for? She didn't seem any different from any other victim that any of them had ever come across before.

Granted the circumstances of her injuries as well as her son's death were more then a tad bit questionable, at best. And the nature of them was consistent with physical abuse, rape, and a few other things. But without a doctor's report, to back those suspicions then there was little that they could do to protect her from having such things happen to her again.

Her son however- was beyond unfortunate. But Shota doubted that Toshinori was attempting to compensate her for the loss of her very young child. He'd be stupid to try using money to fill _that_ particular void.

He'd likely get his account funds taken, and his ass handed to him royally.

Suddenly hearing Toshi sigh tiredly and reached up to place his hand against the glass window leading to the woman's room. Shota blinked down at his friend as he heard him mutter. "Why isn't she waking up? Shouldn't she be waking up sometime soon?" He sounded exhausted. As if he carried far more than a heavy burden upon his shoulders. Which was ridiculous really. The man was the number one super hero All Might. He carried the heavy burdens of _millions_ upon his shoulders each and every day.

But most of all, more than anything, Shota found that he sounded anxious to see the woman awaken.

He supposed that he could sympathize, and as curious as he was to interview the woman on _how_ a quirk-less individual like herself came to be in such a way in the middle of a demolished battle ground where she hadn't been before- unlike his friend he was content to sit back and wait patiently.

After all, they had done their part thus far. Now it was up to her.


	4. Chapter 4

Shota decided to stick around for a little bit longer after observing Toshinori's actions towards the woman. There was something in the man's behavior that was simply both characteristic of a hero and uncharacteristic at the same time, he just couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

But it made him curious.

And to be perfectly honest sitting in the hospital with his friend was far more entertaining than educating a bunch of snot nosed little brats. Even if they were the next generation of superhero's in training.

Training them wasn't his ideal way to spend a nice day.

He had been skipping out of his work for the better part of three days now and Toshinori was almost irked enough to toss him off of the roof of the hospital by now.

Mostly because he had been doing nothing but irritating him endlessly.

The first day that he had decided to stay had been filled with nothing but talk of business. Stuff like who would be interviewing the woman once she awoke and saw to the burial of her son and so on.

Because such interviews were usually conducted by more than one person, Toshinori, himself and one other had been chosen to do the interview.

The other was Mt. Lady.

A female super hero who upon activating her quirk could grow to the size of a small mountain. But then forty to fifty something feet was half the size of some of the tallest sky scrapers in the city. And such a quirk was nothing to sneeze at in terms of power and enhanced strength.

However none of those were the reasons behind her being chosen to help interview the woman once she was awake. The reason was more along the lines of, there being some things that only another woman could possibly understand.

If the things asked during the interview began to upset the woman, Mt. Lady would remove them from the room but let them stand outside and observe just in case the woman decided to attack her or something.

Such things had been known to happen before in the past, especially when dealing with the victims suffering from an especially violent past.

Aside from all of that though, the doctor that had checked on the woman the other day had said that she should be waking up soon. Which was what they were still waiting on. And had been for the past three days.

He had just gotten up to get his seven dozen-th hot chocolate when all of a sudden he heard Toshinori shouting like a mad man down the hall. Turning his head for a second to see what his friend was shouting about and in those few moments- was almost mowed down by some doctors and nurses running down the hall towards where his friend was shouting.

Several minutes of silence followed, and with it his curiosity was piqued. Deciding that a little bit of masculine injury was worth the knowledge of knowing why Toshi was raising such hell, he sighed and rolled his eyes heaven wards for a moment and then turned and began to make his way back to the waiting room next to the room where the woman was being treated only to find it blocked off by everyone that had practically run him over earlier.

Growling softly in annoyance, he took a moment to find Toshi's blond head in the crowd before he even bothered to begin grabbing people by the scruff of the neck and elbow his way over to the other man.

"Toshinori-" He started to ask what the hell was going on, but his friend cut him off with a half giddy, "She's awake Shota! She finally woke up. What's more, the doctor is examining her because she managed to sit up and even get out of bed herself!"

Shota found himself blinking as he processed the information before finally saying slowly, "Oh?" _That_ was interesting information. Especially given how badly she was injured. He might have commented on it, but Toshinori was rambling all sorts of things at the moment in excitement.

Finally after what seemed like forever to Shota and Toshinori, some of the doctors and nurses cleared out of the room leaving a small group of four behind to switch out IV's, take the woman's blood, pulse, blood pressure and so on while the main doctor treating her walked out of the room to speak with them.

"Which one of you is her guardian for now?"

Toshinori stood up a little bit straighter and squared his shoulders a bit and looked at the man as he said, "I am." The doctor looked a little bit surprised for a moment and Toshi gave him a narrow eyed glare as if to say, _is-there-a-problem_ - _with-that_ as the man then said.

"Alright. The patient's condition is better than expected given the short amount of time that she's been here. Her broken bones have knitted together, the torn muscles and ligaments in various parts of her body have all but completely healed. The bruising has faded- if not for the fact that we already tested her I would think that she had a quirk working on healing her. Her injuries should have kept her in a coma like state for at least three months straight. Frankly I'm amazed that she's up and aware of as much as she is."

"Aware?"

"Oh yes, when I went to break the news about her son to her- she cut me off at the knee and said that she already knew and then demanded to be let to see him. With your permission as temporary guardian, I can get a nurse to go and fetch a wheel chair-"

"If she can get up and move around then why-"

"The wheel chair is necessary given the fact that she shouldn't strain herself so soon after awakening. It's kind of a safety policy here, that even if a patient has the strength, they shouldn't use it immediately. Anyways...with your permission, I can send a nurse to collect a wheel chair for her and you can go with her down to the morgue to see her son."

"And it's fine as long as she stays in the wheel chair?"

"Yes, though I'll be sending a nurse with you armed with some tranquilizers just in case."


	5. Chapter 5

Waking up someplace unfamiliar was nothing new to Mizuki. After all it had happened more than a time or two in the past. Mostly during the two or so years spent serving as entertainment to depraved, wealthy men in clubs or brothels. It was a cruel way to have one's innocence ripped away. Even more so if it was chipped away a little bit at a time over the span of _years_.

Yet it was a little better than some other fates that she had seen befall other innocents before. But just barely.

Looking around the room she noted that it looked nothing like her usual cell. Nor was the body of her baby son there to torment her. Which was unusual.

Normally her master/master's didn't hesitate to torment her to remind her of her place in the food chain. Yet...something was off. She wasn't sure _exactly_ what it was for sure. But something was. The world around her...didn't seem... Her train of thought was cut off by this huge assed blond guy wearing a stupid grin and a red and blue outfit, pushing an wheel chair.

The hell?

"Mizuki-chan, I'm most happy to see you awake again even under these terrible circumstances. If you are ready to see your young son now- I will take you to him and even help you with any plans that you have for his burial." The man said.

Mizuki blinked for a second, her mind somewhat spitting images of what had occurred between her and her latest master and her failure to protect her son to the rain and the big blond guy dropping to his knees beside her as she lay in a puddle of her own blood.

For all intents and purposes to the world, dying.

And then the name _Toshinori_ hit her like a ton of bricks and all she seemed able to say was, "You're real?" She had really thought that she had dreamt him. He had seemed like something that a delusional mind might conjure up in the midst of dying.

After all, he was... _warm_. Unbelievably so. And seemed to be brimming with kindness and compassion. Things that she had only seen and experienced once or twice in her young life as both a weapon and a slave.

He laughed. Obviously thinking her joking before saying in a booming voice, "Of course I'm real. What else would I be?"

It was on the tip of her tongue to say, A really good figment of my imagination, but refrained and yelped- startled, when he suddenly reached down and more or less swept her up in one arm and carefully deposited her in the seat of the wheel chair and then grabbed the top cover from the bed that she had been sleeping in and draped it over her lap after he took a moment to fold it over in half so that it was layered.

And then moved himself around her so that he was behind her and slowly so as not to startle her too badly, begun to wheel her out of the room. The moment that they were in the hallway, Shota fell into step beside Toshinori whom had run to the bathroom and locked himself in a stall a few moments ago so that he could assume his other identity as All Might before using his super speed to zip back. Grabbing a wheel chair as he ran through the hospital halls like a mad man in his weirdly _oh-so-eager-to-please_ , sort of way so that he could speed things along a little bit and take the woman to view the body of her deceased son.

"Oh, that reminds me- Do you recall my name?" Toshinori wondered aloud as he walked, his neon blue eyes taking in Mizuki's odd mixture of confusion and curiosity as they moved along to the elevator.

"It's Toshinori. Right?"

"Yeah, that's right! I'm so glad that you recalled it Mizuki-chan. Anyways I just wanted to make sure before I introduced our shadow here," He said with an amused grin as she turned her head a little bit to look at Shota who had been walking beside the blond in utter silence, observing the two curiously. "His name is Shota. I'm sorry that I can't give you our last names, but it's for privacy's sake. Not to mention it's also for safety reasons. Both yours and ours. I hope that you understand. Anyways, he's a decent guy and until I can help you get on your feet again, he'll be helping me make sure that you have what you require. Even if it's something as small as an fried to talk too or a shoulder to cry on."

Shota had objections to be given more work than he already had, however due to his shock/disbelief in being drafted for this particular pet project of Toshinori's he didn't get a chance to do more than bristle a little bit as Toshinori kept on walking and chattering away, either unknowing or simply uncaring of Shota's feelings about being drafted to help with the woman's care on top of his day job as a teacher.

Honestly teaching kids was a _hard_ job. Why the hell would he volunteer himself for another of this magnitude? He wouldn't volunteer himself to help with one of Toshinori's pet projects even if he had a deadly disease and helping another out could save his life.

Just because he had professional hero status didn't mean that he liked it any.

After all, it was widely known even among the rest of the hero's that he had been forced into the occupation of professional hero by both the government that had found a use in his ability to erase other's quirks, and his family.

"I've been meaning to ask, but forgot to before- the other day, when we met. But what was your son's name?" Toshinori asked softly as they exited the elevator and slowly began making their way down the hall of the hospital lower levels where the woman's child's body was being kept.

"His name was Shiki."

"T-That's a little bit of a strange name for a child..." Toshinori said without thinking and internally cringed when Mizuki merely replied in a soft tone,

"Not really. I named him Shiki because of the spirit that he was bound to become... I wasn't wrong."

After that Toshinori became eerily silent. Probably because he didn't know what to say to the woman after hearing such a thing from her. It didn't take them much longer to finally reach the morgue. Upon which the woman decided to try getting up and walking before either of them could so much as stop her slightly staggering gait, she passed through the doorway and was inside demanding her son.

Leaving them out in the hallway wondering what they should do with themselves while she visited her child.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the late update- my 9yr old Siamese cat Gale had to be put down and I've been taking it really hard.**

* * *

The next two in a half days after Mizuki's awakening was filled with hours upon _hours_ of meticulous funeral planning, among other things. Some of which Toshinori and Shota found themselves to both be immensely helpful to the woman whether they meant to be or not.

For instance, Toshinori had helped Mizuki with much of the arrangements. Though not all of them since she would repeatedly remind him that some details are simply best done by the family of the departed.

It wasn't that he meant to intentionally overstep, it's just that he knew from prior experiences- as a casual observer, that planning for the funeral of a child so young must be very trying- _emotionally_. And he was just trying to lighten the load some.

Something that he had thought that she would appreciate.

And perhaps she did, and she simply didn't know how to show it right then. Which was understandable, considering how busy she had suddenly become. He didn't think that she had even been sleeping these past two days since waking.

She had just initially told them that she wished to cremate her child. However since there were strict laws stating that only specific individuals with special status as either special citizens, hero status, or people within the government with very specific quirks- were the only people that _could_ be cremated.

Everyone else wishing for cremation for someone within their family, or a circle of friends had to petition the government for the right to do so. Stating the reasons why, and how it would be more beneficial for it to be allowed. Otherwise everyone whom died was simply buried.

Shota was sent out scouting by Toshinori after a very, very narrow escape with Mizuki's temper, for churches with nice graveyards not too far from her new home where he purchased a small private plot underneath a willow tree with a wisteria vine climbing up it.

Upon his return to the hospital with the plot papers, info and a picture of the place, he had simply stated that if he had ever had a child that died- the plot that he had picked out would be his ideal one for his child to spend the rest of eternity. He had then handed over an extra set of papers for an adult plot that he had bought for Mizuki, next to her son's plot.

Stating that it was, just in case, before he then walked off.

Later when Toshinori had shown Mizuki the picture of the willow tree with the wisteria, she had simply taken the picture from him and then told him what kind of flowers she wanted for her son's service and grave.

Toshinori jotted down everything and then had noticed how tired she seemed and had decided to leave her to rest for a while if she could, and then left the room.

Looking down at the pad of paper in his hands where he had jotted down the info on the flowers he couldn't help but feel a little bit impressed by the sheer amount of detail that she was putting into things.

White lilies, lavender, blue forget-me-nots, and pink bachelor's buttons.

He had to go to four floral shops just to find what she had asked for, but he'd found the flowers and ordered two medium sized arrangements and one large one. And then added one more of white roses from him before he gave the churches name and address and then left to go to the funeral home to finalize everything.

After all the coffin still hadn't been picked out nor had anyone thought to see to the bodies delivery to the church. However even as he walked up the steps to do those, he found Shota standing there and figured that it was a bit of a wasted trip, but at least everything was done.

Now all he had to do was wait for Mizuki to be cleared to leave the hospital and they could go from there.

* * *

The next day Toshinori was informed around five am that Mizuki would be free to leave the hospital now that her injuries were completely healed. Toshi merely nodded at this and began to prepare for departure, however had to wait for Mizuki to be discharged before he could go anywhere.

After all, it wasn't like anyone else really knew where her new home was located.

He did out of necessity. And so did some of his co-workers (also out of necessity) but no one else. This was partially so that Mizuki would have some privacy to settle into her new home and have time to properly grieve before anyone came around to really bother her.

Though it wouldn't stop him from occasionally 'being in the neighborhood' and deciding to see how she was. Just for a few minutes or so. At least until he was certain that she didn't need to see a therapist or something. Though from just observing her most of the time, it appeared that a therapist would be needed at some point seeing as she appeared to either be emotionally numb, or simply emotionally stunted in some way like Shota.

Though he knew that she cared enough about her son to retrieve his remains at great cost to herself and even go to great pains just to give him a proper send off. It still worried him that she hadn't been depressed or crying for her dead child like most mothers would do.

Finally after waiting two hours, Toshinori signed the release forms a few moments before one of the girls he worked with off and on dropped by on the errand that he had asked her to run and delivered the clothing that she had grabbed from Mizuki's new home since the woman couldn't very well walk around in those thin cotton hospital clothes.

Her girl parts would show and people would look at her oddly.

And frankly that was no way to begin one's new life. He had left a little while ago to run an errand himself as All Might, and grabbed a shower, and change of clothing for himself, the new bank information and card that he had in Mizuki's new name sitting at his place, and then zoomed back to the hospital.

All in all he'd barely been gone fifteen minutes thanks to his super speed. But while he had been away he had worried about Mizuki endlessly.

Thanking his co-worker, he was about to walk back to the room and give the clothing to Mizuki when the girl stopped him in his tracks by asking about her. His reply was automatic, "How would you be if you lost your child?" He wasn't trying to be mean or deliberately cruel, though the look on her face made him want to apologize almost as automatically as he had said the words before.

She gave him a shaky smile that wasn't the least bit convincing and told him that she asked because _everyone_ else had been wondering how she was doing.

To say that this surprised him would be an understatement. Usually many hero's didn't bother giving someone more than a passing thought despite what they lost. Yet here his co-worker was telling him that everyone that knew him was concerned for her.

To him, their behavior sounded a little bit fishy. Almost as if they simply wanted to just show up and watch Mizuki as if she were a freak in a freak show or something. But then he supposed that they must think the same of his behavior towards her.

His thoughts were confirmed further when she asked where the funeral for Mizuki's son was being held and then mentioned that some of them would like to attend and send the kid off properly and give her their condolences- Toshinori didn't doubt that there were indeed _some_ among the hero ranks that wished to do those things.

After all, he had a lot of very kind hearted and compassionate friends.

He also worked with a bunch of world class arrogant assholes, and frankly it was pretty easy to tell who had put the girl up to asking such things even in passing.

And it wasn't the kind and compassionate friends.

So instead of tearing into the girl as he wanted to do, he simply told her that _no one_ but the child's immediate family would be attending. Which was a lie. He had already planned to go as moral support and he would be dragging Shota along weather the man wished it or not since he had helped out and knew more about the situation than any total stranger.

And once the boy was laid to rest, he intended to drag Shota and Mizuki both to one of the best places to eat sushi, tempura and some other stuff so that the woman could have something for dinner before she returned to her new home to settle in.

Come to think of it, maybe he should have gone out earlier and done some grocery shopping since he doubted that there was any food back at the apartment.


	7. Chapter 7

The funeral was...as exhausting as it was enlightening to say the least. To begin with, while he and Shota sat in the back of the church in their most somber black suits as Mizuki stood next to her son's coffin and sang what could only be described as one of the saddest and most beautiful lullabies the two had ever heard anyone sing before.

Even Shota had sat up a little bit straighter and had listened intently to the sweet melodious sound of her singing before the small service had started. After which they hadn't bothered to really stick around and witness the burial.

The moment that the coffin was being carried outside, Mizuki had decided to simply come by at another time and told them that she was leaving now. However due to the fact that Toshinori knew that she didn't know where her new home was, he managed to stop her.

Though it took some real quick convincing on his part. The woman was as stubborn as Shota on a bad day. And when his convincing had fallen through, he had changed into All Might and simply picked her up around the waist and refused to let her go wandering off to parts unknown even as she had made a scene there on the streets, kicking and screaming for a good two blocks before finally seeming to settle down and simply hanging in his grasp like a dead rabbit or something before finally asking in a rather curious manner.

"H-How does your body change form like it does?"

Her question must have startled him and Shota both since the two of them exchanged a look for a moment before Toshinori slowly said, "It is simply a sign of my hero status. When needed, I can change my form as I see fit. And with it I gain many gifts. Strength, unparalleled. The speed to attack or reach the victims of attacks quickly and so on..."

Feeling one of her small hands on one of his wrists she said, "You're bones are denser in this form. To help limit the damage that would be done to you otherwise. After all, if your bones are denser in one place then they would have to be in others to protect your vitals and other organs." She said this in an strange manner, almost as if she hadn't really noticed before.

He felt genuinely surprised by this since 1) _Everybody_ noticed him. How could they not? His super hero form was simply too big and powerful not to notice. And 2) It wasn't exactly a well known fact outside of only perhaps one or two people that he knew really, really well. The stuff about his bones that is.

He was about to say something when Shota beat him to it by simply telling her.

"That's a very good observation. But you should keep it to yourself since no one outside of a very specific group of people even knows that information."

Mizuki's only response to his words was to hesitantly say, "Oh... I'm sorry." Causing Shota to give her a quick glance out of the corner of his eye for a moment and then looked back ahead of him as Toshinori said gently,

"Don't worry about it. Just keep it to yourself, okay?"

"Yeah..."

"Great!" He said in an overly chipper tone before asking her if she could walk on her own again. She huffed at him and muttered that she would have been walking _now_ if he hadn't have picked her up and started walking.

He chuckled and set her on her feet in between himself and Shota and then gently took her small hand in his and tugged her along.

The people on the street around them, gave them some difficulty- it was simply hard for them not too given the fact that All Might and one of his hero buddies was out and about. No one really paid all that much attention to Mizuki, unless it was someone of the female persuasion.

And he had many women admirers. The lot of which were troublesome and clingy. Always wanting more than he was willing to give them.

The moment that any of those ladies noticed him holding hands with Mizuki- they all but swarmed her before either he or Shota could say or do anything since they were trying to control their own mini crowd. Still Toshinori never let go of Mizuki's hand, nor did he ever let his eyes leave her even for a second. He simply couldn't afford too otherwise the rabid women would attack her.

And frankly that wasn't what she needed right now.

Finally after about ten minutes of putting up with the adoring public he decided that enough was enough and carefully maneuvered himself through the crowd so that he could grab Shota and Mizuki, and then took a super powered flying leap.

Shota was clinging to him like a cat doused in icy water by the time they landed again, whereas Mizuki never once so much as said a peep and kept her grip on him light as if she didn't care if she could possibly fall twenty or more stories to her death.

This bothered Toshinori but he let it slide as he took several moments to peel Shota off of his arm as Mizuki looked around for a second or so.

They had landed on the streets a good several blocks from where they had been, and though there were people around them that seemed to notice them, instead of running up to them and stuff like the others had earlier- these merely walked around the three of them occasionally pointing and whispering before she realized that they were standing outside of some sort of establishment.

Curious, she stepped away from her two...uh...guard dogs? for a moment and found a window to look through and see where they had brought her.

The inside of the place was bustling, busy- and from the looks of the food and booze being served, a restaurant? _Hn. How_ _strange?_ Shouldn't she be- Her train of thought was cut off when she heard Toshinori speak close to her ear. "Mizuki? Is everything okay?"

She didn't speak at first. To be perfectly honest she wasn't all that sure about what to say or ask. That nagging feeling that she had been feeling off and on since the day she had met Toshinori was beginning to kick in again. Well that and there was the fact that Toshinori was different from others, and that difference was...startling.

She could only imagine how useful someone like him would be to her master.

Speaking of- why was she not being returned to him? Had she succeeded in actually killing him for murdering her son? And if so who had she been sold too now?

"Mizuki?" Toshinori's voice sounded in her ear again as she felt his hand lightly grasp her wrist causing her to jerk around ever so slightly and look at him. She didn't realize it but she had a somewhat alarmed expression on her hauntingly lovely face as she looked at him, and he didn't _like_ whatever it was that had put that expression there.

However he decided to simply let it slide for the time being so that they could get something to eat before he and Shota walked her home. Trying his best to block out that expression, he merely said in a gentle tone. "Come on. You're holding us all up."

She made an unintelligible sound as she was somewhat pulled/dragged back to the door where he noted that Shota was MIA and sighed upon realizing that the man had either dumped them and left or gone on ahead to find a table.

Oh he sure hoped that Shota was simply finding a table...


	8. Chapter 8

That nagging feeling in the back of her mind continued to persist to such an annoying level that finally, she broke down not long after her dinner was delivered and looked at the two men as she solemnly set her eating utensils aside and asked in a very businesslike manner, "Now that my son has been laid to rest, I'd like to clear a few things up if you don't mind."

Toshinori and Shota sensing the sudden change in her, decided to ignore their meals to see what she had to say and answer any questions that she might have.

"Very well. What is it that you want to know?" Toshi said calmly when she blurted out in a peculiarly anxious tone.

"Why am I here? What game are the two of you playing? Are you- Are you my new handlers? What about my master? I can't imagine he's very happy that his personal play thing tried to kill him. Unless..." An uncharacteristically cruel smirk curved her soft pink lips as she stared the two dead in the eye and said. "Unless I was successful in killing him, that is."

Both men were utterly still and silent from the shock of what the woman had just revealed to them.

"But then again I guess killing him was justifiable for many reasons. Rape, torture, the buying and selling of children and adults, murder-" She sighed then before muttering, "My new master will likely slap an explosive collar around my neck and make me serve him like an animal does..."

Toshinori was shaking so badly that he was trembling with rage in his seat as he watched Mizuki _carefully_.

She thought that- She believed- How did one respond to such questions? He wondered as Shota decided to speak up for him since he had apparently lost all ability to speak.

"There is no master. You are free now to do as you wish."

"Now I know that you're lying to me. You can't free me. The only kind of free slave is a dead one." Mizuki said venomously as she started to slowly rise from her seat when Toshinori finally found his voice and slammed his hands down on the table and shouted.

"Sit down now!"

Mizuki looked at him with a mutinous look upon her pretty face before realizing that he could really hurt her if he bothered to change forms and beat her, and reluctantly reseated herself as he said. "I don't know what the hell went on in your past, nor do I really care-" It was a lie, even Shota could tell that much just from the tremor in Toshinori's voice. He cared very much about what had happened to her and would _rip_ apart anyone that tried to take her freedom from her now that she had it. "But Shota and I have not busted our asses to give you a fresh start just so that you can squander it. Yes, the loss of your infant son, Shiki was tragic. You're life in general sounds as if it has been tragic. _But it all ends here_. You are free now to do as you wish, and I don't want to hear another word about your so called master. Understood?"

Mizuki looked as if she were trying to think of something. He could see the stubborn set of her jaw and the way that her hands fisted on the table.

She was dying to say something, but was hesitating to do so for some reason that he didn't understand. Finally after so many minutes, she slowly nodded her head and he felt some of the tension begin to ease out of his body as he slowly retook his seat and said in a more gentle tone. "Good. Now please eat something. We practically ordered a feast so lets all dig in. And if after this you decide that you would like some extra to take home, or to even go grocery shopping, then I'll help."

Mizuki said nothing, she merely nodded her head slowly and picked up her fork and began to slowly pick at her food. This went on for almost thirty minutes before Toshinori cleared his throat to get her attention, and then upon getting it- gave her a curious look before asking. "Is the food not to your liking?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean- you don't know?"

"I mean- The soup and salad I get. But not the other stuff. I've never seen such foods before. I don't know _what_ they are."

"O-Oh. That didn't occur to us when we ordered everything." Was all that Toshinori could manage to say as he cast a glance over at Shota whom had a nice piece of Tonkatsu pork half stuffed in his mouth. The man didn't even stop chewing right away.

He simply chewed on the tough meat several more times before finally freezing up. As Toshinori decided to break down the foods littering the table.

"Shota is eating some Tonkatsu, that over there is sushi, next to it is about three dozen mussels with cream sauce, and next to that is some shrimp stir fry, over there is some udon noodles, next to that is some crab rangoon's, over there is some Karaage which is a type of fried chicken thigh, and last but not least is mochi, a nice pastry with either jam or cream filling. All of which are incredibly delicious. So make sure that you try a little bit of everything to see what you like."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that her stomach couldn't hold that much food, but decided to tell him later, _after_ she made a point to puke on his shoes and simply said, "Uh...okay." And then fixed herself a plate with a little bit of sushi, mussels, shrimp- that she picked out of the stir fry and simply placed on her plate. Some rangoons, two pieces of karaage, a little bit of udon in a small bowl, and two things of mochi.

One green tea, and a vanilla and then slowly began eating her preferred foods.


	9. Chapter 9

Mizuki managed to eat three platefuls of various things. But she really seemed to like the seafood, the sushi, and mochi. And even decided on getting some to take home with her. Though she didn't exactly know where her home was. It was at this point, once her order was placed, that Toshinori decided to explain to her that she had not only a new home not far from where her son had been laid to rest, but other things as well.

He told her about the new paperwork, her new bank account- and how to use it when she told he and Shota that she had never had money before to trade for goods. Her manner of speech was odd to them. And while it was on the tip of his tongue to ask what she _had_ used before now to trade for goods. Something about her tone implied that he really didn't want to know.

He told her about how she would receive a weekly allowance to do what she wished with. But suggested that she keep as much as possible in her account just in case. He told her that her new home had all the latest furnishings and appliances. Comfy and classy furniture, book shelves here and there for knick-knacks and such, tables- and chairs.

He told her about some of his and Shota's co-workers went shopping for some clothing for her. And while she smiled a little bit, he couldn't help but notice her inwardly cringe at the thought of a stranger picking out what she was to wear from day to day.

Seeing her cringe, Toshinori quickly apologized for his role in letting the ladies do her shopping for her and then explained that he had merely been thinking that she would be so busy mourning her son that she wouldn't want to leave her new home to procure clothing or groceries for a good long while.

Mizuki told him that she understood his line of thought, but she was still going to go through the clothing at some point and set what she didn't want aside.

She told him that if she found any clothing that was too revealing, then she was far more likely to take it out and dump it somewhere and burn it for good measure. She then also told him that if he didn't mind, she would like to grab some groceries before she went to her new home. Toshinori agreed to the request though he was starting to get the feeling that she was feeling a tad bit anxious about going home. And it took him just a little bit to piece together why and fully understand.

After taking her order and paying their bill the threesome left the restaurant and began the semi long-ish treck back the way that they came. During that time, Toshinori found himself closely watching Mizuki as his mind turned over various questions and bits of information that she had given him and Shota about her past.

Perhaps he was more naïve than he thought he was, but as time passed while they slowly walked he came to realize that 'home' for Mizuki had always been a sort of prison for her instead of the safe haven that it should have been.

"Do you know what you would like to get at the grocery store?" He found himself asking not just out of a need to distract his mind from the horrors that she had hinted at earlier, but out of curiosity. The need and desire to know the sort of things that she liked.

"I'm not sure. Some cook cooks. Meats, some seafood, veggies- some fruit would be nice. Maybe something with seedless red grapes and tangerines? I'm not sure if I need any pots or pans-"

"You don't," Shota said before he could. "You have everything that you need to get anything done including Tupperware, boxes for bento's, forks, spoons, knives, and plates, bowls and little dipping dishes too."

"Wow. When you guys go all out, you really go all out."

"We pride ourselves on how we serve our people and our community." Both men said in unison.

She said nothing, though the weird look that she gave them _did_ speak rather loudly about what she was thinking. They walked for several blocks without incident and then finally just as they rounded the corner to reach the grocery store that Shota had suggested since all of the other ones that were closest to Mizuki's new home were small and didn't carry a very large selection of much of anything- Toshinori and Shota suddenly tensed and shoved Mizuki back behind them as a car went skidding past them with a couple of screaming kids inside of it.

"Dammit," Toshinori muttered in a tone that could only be described as a vexed sounding growl as he saw a villain standing in the middle of the street laughing in maniacal amusement at the kids that he was terrorizing. "Shota would you keep Mizuki back so that I can handle this?" He said as he transformed into his super hero alter ego at the same exact moment he heard his friend say.

"I would. But I think it's pointless..."

Twisting around to look at Shota, he caught his friend pointing towards something and followed the direction of his finger only to have his jaw drop as Mizuki was getting up from the ground next to the car. Apparently she had been asking them if they were okay and after receiving an affirmative, got up and placed herself between them and the villain and cracked her knuckles menacingly.

"All right dickless. You think it's funny to pick on a bunch of kids. Let's see how you deal with me." By this point Toshinori's alter ego's jaw was on the ground _and_ he was spitting up blood from the shock of what Mizuki was doing. Did the woman not understand that she was a civilian and that he and Shota were two perfectly able bodied super hero- that train of thought quickly died as the wind around her suddenly picked up alarmingly and her long dark hair slowly began to bleed to pure white.

Of course by this point he wasn't the only one gaping in shock. Shota was too.

The moment that the tips of her hair finished changing color, she vanished and seemed to move so quickly that even their highly trained senses could barely keep track of her. But from what they did manage to see of her actions, it looked as if she flickered or phased several times before appearing behind the villain and grabbing him up in a one handed choke hold by the neck and shook him a little bit.

Eliciting a whimper of fear from the man as he wet himself at which point she muttered something and then tossed him so that he landed on a car several feet away and then called out. "I suggest that you turn yourself in. Because if I ever catch you again..." She didn't bother finishing the threat, the villain was up and running before she could anyways.

Exhaling, she slowly let her hair change back to normal and was about to go check on the kids when she felt Toshinori's alter ego's hand, gripping her wrist again. Forcing her to turn and look at him as he said in a funny tone. "We need to talk."


	10. Chapter 10

Toshinori was gaping again, this time not only in shock but in utter horror.

After the villain incident, he had pulled Mizuki aside and asked her everything that he could think of about her quirk only to remember that the hospital had run tests to see if she had one only to find that she didn't hold any of the DNA markers for a quirk.

Which would make her what?

An alien? Nah. Not damned likely. She was too pretty and lacked the grey-ish lack luster skin.

An experiment? An augmented human with super human abilities? Such methods being used on another living thing were both _incredibly_ immoral not to mention illegal. And if she was found out or even believed to be one, she could be locked away in a lab and experimented on and dissected and then disposed of.

So maybe- _hopefully_...that wasn't the case.

It made far more sense that she possibly had a genetic mutation that was very, _very_ rare and merely had never been documented.

Though undocumented hero's were also incredibly illegal. If one were perhaps stolen or kidnapped as a small child and raised in a horrifying environment in hopes of perhaps twisting them into something evil- well...he wouldn't put it past a handful of villain's to pull such stunts in the hopes of using some hero's own blood kin against them.

Which left him sort of without a clue as to what to do with her now.

Sure he could take her somewhere to be held and questioned and have give her a psych evaluation to make sure that she wasn't a danger to herself or others. But such facilities were little better than actual prisons and he doubted that she would feel terribly understanding of the _'why's'_ of being placed within one.

Especially after he and Shota had just told her two hours ago that she was finally free.

Besides, from what he had just observed she didn't seem to care all that much for villains nor for bullies. So perhaps he should enroll her in U.A. Academy after having her checked out and stuff. This would give a chance for her to be documented, as well as her abilities seen in action.

Though he might have to pull some strings and see about having her attend in both capacity of student/new teacher depending on her psych evaluation. Plus it would give him and others a better chance to get to know her and keep an eye on her.

Just in case.

Sighing because he knew that his job to help her had just gotten considerably harder, he shifted his gaze to Shota whom had rejoined them a little while ago and had overheard the last bit of their little conversation and now stood there, with his arms crossed over his chest, looking thoughtful.

Could she be an augmented human? _No_. Augmented humans didn't have the ability to physically transform their outward appearance. Everything enhanced about them was internal.

 _What_ _to do? What to do?_ There had to be a way to get answers since he doubted that Toshinori would allow him to drag her to a lab for testing. He wondered for a moment before finally bending down until he was eye level with Mizuki and asking her the full extent of her abilities.

Mizuki however apparently either didn't understand her precarious position or simply didn't care. She stared the two of them down without a hint of fear even when Shota's hand shot out and wrapped around her throat and slowly started to squeeze a little bit as his dark eyes began to glow red.

"Tell us the full extent of your abilities or I'll kill you where you sit." Shota threatened as he cut off her air. Mizuki barely so much as twitched. She remained sitting as she had before, in a semi relaxed pose with her legs crossed and her hands resting in her lap.

Offering no resistance whatsoever.

It was strange.

But perhaps not as strange as the smirk that suddenly began to curve her lips before she wheezed out, "You really wanna know? Then fight me," Shota must have been a bit startled by her words because he abruptly let her go and moved back away from her and then scowled down at her as she took a moment to rub her throat and say calmly, "Knowledge is power, gentlemen. If you want to know the proper way to gauge my abilities- you will have to fight me to learn what it is you want to know."

"However, even in a fight, there are certain rules that must be obeyed. To begin with, I have no desire to kill you. So fighting to murder your opponent is a no go. You can fight until either time is up- once a specific time limit is agreed upon- also, you can only go all out for the first two minutes. After that, you either leave the fight or go to half power. This will cut down on the injuries sustained. There should be someone unbiased to judge, and medics on standby because accidents _can_ and usually _do_ happen regardless of whether we wish them to or not. Agreed?"

Both men were silent for a moment as they weighed the pro's and cons before finally both agreed to her terms. They were well thought out and reasonable, so why not? Besides it sounded more like the terms were for their benefit than hers. Which was somewhat interesting.

Once the terms were agreed upon Mizuki stood up from where she had been seated and carefully dusted herself off before making a beeline for the grocery store causing both men to start shouting about their fight. Weren't they going to go- Mizuki turned back around as soon as she reached the door of the store and smiled at them like a mischievous little kid before saying, "Not tonight we aren't. If you'll be so kind to recall, I buried my son today. So let's at least wait until either tomorrow or a few days from now. Until then, let's get my groceries and get me home! I don't know about you guys but I'm getting tired."


	11. Chapter 11

It had been almost five days since the villain incident with Mizuki and in that time, Toshinori had begun to compile all of the information necessary in which to prove that Mizuki wasn't an illegal, augmented human while Shota set up the details of their fight by speaking with one or two people in the U.A. that could be trusted utterly to remain silent about her and her abilities until they could at least figure out her intentions or something.

Anything really.

To be perfectly honest if not for the fact that she had flat out refused to tell them of her abilities, Toshinori would have been more than happy to simply turn a blind eye to everything that she had done.

But since she wasn't down on any documents or anything- or at least he assumed so, then he simply couldn't let her run wild and free.

Even now, her new home was being watched for any suspicious activity by one of his friends in law enforcement. The man had even staged a few run-in's with her to see how she interacted with him or around him when she left her apartment.

So far he had reported only one thing suspicious about his interactions with her. But it wasn't so much as suspicious as it was merely strange. The second time that the two had been interacting with each other, they had been talking about some stuff that Mizuki had got from a local book store.

They had been talking in a friendly manner when all of a sudden there had been a screech of tires and Mizuki had gone into what his friend had described as a trance like state and quickly grabbed him and pushed him behind her as a car came around the corner, slipping and sliding as it did so before hitting the side of another vehicle and then spinning completely out of control and was heading right for them and the other unsuspecting people on the side walk.

Mizuki shouted out a warning, allowing as many as possible to get the hell out of the way before the car crashed right into Mizuki's outstretched hand. The force of the impact nearly sent her sprawling to the ground, but some how she managed to hold herself up while stopping the runaway vehicle completely.

Luckily no one was injured from the incident. Though the driver of the car was arrested for reckless endangerment and intoxication.

Toshinori's friend reported that he was unharmed only because Mizuki stood between him and certain death. Though he had reported that Mizuki didn't stay around long after.

Apparently catching the car before it could mow someone down had snapped her arm in three places. And while that was somewhat alarming for Toshinori to hear, his friend had told him that she hadn't seemed to really notice and by the time she had left the scene, she was using her arm just fine.

Which would suggest both possible nerve damage in the limb and a possible ability to either not feel pain or heal abnormally fast.

After hearing this report, his friend had understandable decided to head home for the day and calm his rattled nerves but had at least stuck around until Toshinori could come and see for himself that he was okay before finally deciding to go visit Mizuki.

He'd accidentally caught her coming out of the shower. And while she hadn't really reacted the normal way- shrieking, screaming tossing things at his head and so on- Toshinori however had passed out from a nosebleed right there on her nice cream colored carpet, while she had lazily meandered off towards the kitchen.

Stepping over him as she went and giving him a nice view of _everything_. And he did mean everything. Those long toned, pale, hairless skinned legs, her hairless mons, her flat stomach, her generous C-cup breasts tipped in soft rose pink nipples.

He could have easily died there on her floor of blood loss had he been half as perverted as someone his age usually was. However the moment was ruined when he managed to slowly get up and noticed her standing in the kitchen with her back to him.

She must have decided to put her hair up at some point due to the fact that it was still a bit damp and by doing so- she had exposed her scarred back to him. His eyes went wide as he noted the various old and puckered scars that looked like they were from bullets, part of her flesh between her shoulders was terribly discolored and looked as if it had been burned- there was several smaller, matching wounds littering her torso and the pale cheeks of her rear. All of which looked as if they had been particularly painful.

There were also what looked like slash marks and old stab wounds starting at the nape of her neck and going down towards the place where the small of her back met with the rest of the spine.

The injuries looked as if someone had gotten into a frenzy and simply cleaved up her body from point A to point B as if they were trying to hack her into pieces.

He couldn't imagine how horrible and terrifying it must have been for her to get those wounds. Not to mention what it must have taken to render her helpless enough to administer them in the first place.

Sensing that he was staring, she shifted her stance a little bit and rubbed one of her bare feet along the back of her calf in a peculiar manner. Almost as if she were uncomfortable with his blatant staring at her nude form.

And yet- she had still to make any attempt to cover herself.

He didn't think it deliberate, the lack of immodesty, that is. It was probably something that she was conditioned to do over time by whomever had been her master. And if that was really the case then Mizuki was probably a victim of several disgustingly inhumane acts against her person.

Finally seeing her move away from the counter with a tall glass full of water, she walked back towards him and then knelt down- causing him to stiffen and automatically turn his head so that he wasn't looking at her anymore. He'd already had enough of an eyeful to last him for several lifetimes.

Besides...if he lost anymore blood here from random nose bleeds he really would die.

Setting the water down on the floor next to his head, he heard Mizuki say softly. "Here. Drink this while I go get dressed and then I'll fix us both something to eat." And with that she was up and down the hall before he could even manage to blink, much less say anything.


	12. Chapter 12

**Yo- sorry for the late update, I've been down off and on with a fever and some other stuff. I just wanted to pop in for those who have been reading to say thanks for the patience, and hopefully this chap will answer more questions about Mizuki and her past.**

 **However as vague as I try to be- there may be triggers in here so if you run across something that turns your stomach I apologize in advance and ask that you please bear with me.**

 **I usually write the dark stuff before I begin to lighten things since I like happy endings.**

* * *

Dinner with Mizuki was...well, at first it was just uncomfortably silent. Mainly on his end. Though she didn't seem to contribute anything either at first. He sat at her dinning room table not far from where the kitchen was, watching her cook. And had to say that from the smell of the food, she was a surprisingly good cook.

So far he had seen her cook half a pound each of some large and small shrimp, some small scallops with a little homemade lemon butter sauce, cooked mussels in some weird sauce, she made a nice seafood salad- whatever the hell that was- some- what was 'loaded'- baked potato's, miso soup and was now cooking up some onion rings to go with everything.

All in all he was rather impressed with how quickly she had adjusted to her new home.

Despite the fact that dinner spelled...fantastic and that seeing her naked earlier, now that she was dressed, was probably a taboo that would get him tossed out of her home on his ass- he had questions and figured that nothing broke uncomfortable silences like questions.

Or the sounds of a woman's unyielding rage.

Whichever came first.

Once Mizuki finished making the tartar sauce and grabbing some of the other stuff, she headed to the dinning room where she set everything down and then went back for the rest before he could ask her if she needed help.

Which she didn't from the way that she seemed to be able to balance everything and walk across the room, apparently.

Once she had everything laid out on the table and had grabbed them some tea, she then sat down and noted that he wasn't fixing his own plate. Instead he was just staring at everything when she finally asked, "Are you oaky? Or is it just my food that is making you cautious?"

"Ah- no, it's nothing like that. Everything looks wonderful. I was just thinking, and I hope that you will indulge me. But it's okay if you don't."

"Fix your plate then. I get the feeling that whatever it is you want to know is going to make this a much longer meal than normal."

Toshinori gave her a small smile and quickly did as she bade him to, piling his plate high with some shell fish, shrimp, scallops, onion rings, a loaded baked potato, some miso, and seafood salad. And began eating a little bit of everything to taste test it. Starting off with small bites at first.

Everything was cooked to perfection. The flavors of the sauces, spices used, hell even the stuff in the seafood salad and on the baked potato tasted so good that he could have wept with joy. He couldn't recall the last time that he'd had a home cooked meal this good.

"Alright..." Mizuki's voice broke his train of thought as he watched her sit back in her seat and wait expectantly for him to ask his questions.

"I wanted to ask you again about your abilities... However after-" He gulped slightly and quickly decided to plow on regardless of whether she slapped him silly or not. "Earlier... I also want to ask you about the scars on your body. But again, if you don't want to tell me then I completely understand."

"My ability is called Jagan. Most people when they hear the word Jagan, think of the one rooted in supernatural occurrences. However there is a less known of ability also referred to as Jagan. It's a natural ability to draw on the strength and power of the environment and store it away within the body. Enhancing it to the point where I can easily become an unmovable and incredibly strong superhuman."

"So far my abilities are rely a good deal on how I choose to use them. And I won't lie, my master has had me murder people before on the threat that I myself would die if I didn't. Some of the scars on my back were gained through torturous tests. My master wanted to know what kind of pretty little doll he had bought from my childhood home. And because I was still fairly young and not completely able to wield my Jagan, he took advantage of my vulnerability to mark me up. The other scars were punishments for either defying him or letting people he wanted dead, go."

Toshinori listened to everything that she told him with a sinking feeling in his stomach as he mulled over the information that she had just given him. So she wasn't an augmented human in the typical sense. She had a special, natural ability to augment herself by storing energy and power from the environment. How peculiar.

Yet at the same time, he was relieved to know that she wasn't an experiment of some kind. And at the same time...he couldn't help but wonder why no one had saved her. Shouldn't someone have known of her being held against her will by someone? Her family? A friend?

Just... _someone_.

"Did no one ever search for you in an attempt to free you?" He found himself asking before he could stop himself. Mizuki snorted in an unlady like manner before simply saying.

"Why would they? I've already figured out that this place works much differently from where I grew up," Toshinori looked at her, her words sinking into his brain with all the subtly of a knife, drawing his undivided attention to her face as his interest piqued. "For starters, where I'm from- there are few of what could only be considered 'superhumans' like myself. Not only that, but there is no such thing as heros or law and justice. Equality is bought and sold on a whim. People live in colonies underground where they are bred, born, checked for talents at a young age- and if found to be without them- are sold into various establishments ranging from brothels, to places where people pay to murder someone in a very horrible ways ranging from dissection, to tearing out various none lethal organs and then letting their associates entertain themselves with that person while they slowly bleed out."

Toshinori wasn't sure what shocked him more.

What she was describing or the fact that she had said that there were no such thing as hero's. What did that even mean? There had been hero's and such for as long as there had been people in the world. So what did she mean?

He kept mulling over the question as he silently ate a few more bites of his food before finally realizing that his plate was empty and wondered where the hell all of his food had gone off too. He couldn't have eaten it all already could he? Truth be told after what Mizuki had just said, he didn't have much of an appetite anymore.

Everything that she had just told him, coupled with what else he had just learned today left a heavy lead weight in his gut. Though he supposed that explained some of her peculiar personality traits as well.

Nature vs. nurture.

A place where no one- no hero- came to save you when you were young, and scared- living with the possibility of a horrifically traumatic life and even more horrifically traumatic death at the hands of monsters.

She had likely learned to beat back her emotional responses and conduct herself in a deceptively meek manner so as to serve her master in whatever capacity he needed her to. An assassin or hitman was merely one thing she must have served as. He shuddered to think of the other ways that she had been forced to serve.

Still there was something lacking in her story. If her ability was really that strong, why hadn't she escaped sooner?

She must have known what he was thinking because she merely said. "I didn't bother escaping because escape at that time was impossible..." He looked at her for a moment, wondering why escape had been impossible for her when she finally filled in the last missing piece of information. "Before we come into our abilities- for those of us who have them- we are taken to a facility at our master's behest and have a tiny microchip implanted in our bodies, where ever he/she chooses it to be placed. Usually the chip is merely electric, to punish us. But not to cause severe harm. However for people like me, the microchip was meant to not only to punish, but to kill."

"Mine is located in the back of my neck. Just at the base of my skull. It's the one place that I nor anyone else could reach to try and dig it out... At least not without killing me anyways, ya know."

Toshinori was completely still in his seat, his breath itself seemed to have come to a shuddering stop for several heartbeats upon hearing her explanation before he decided to ask the last possible question that he could think of. "If everything that you say is true, then what role did Shiki play? Why were you allowed to have him?"

Mizuki tilted her head slightly to the side as if considering his question before saying, "My master wasn't a fool. He always feared that I would find a way to break free of his control. Obviously he wasn't wrong or I wouldn't be sitting here. My pregnancy with my son was a more devious way to keep this dog on her leash. If I stepped out of line, Shiki was punished. If I didn't do as my master wanted and refused to service him- Shiki was punished."

"Is that what happened? Shiki was punished because of something that you did?"

Mizuki's expression grew shuttered as he waited for an answer before finally realizing that she wasn't going to say anymore about her past or her son, at which point he sighed softly and scrubbed his face with his hands and said gently.

"I'm sorry, Mizuki... I shouldn't have asked such questions so soon."

Mizuki merely leaned forward a little bit in her seat and reached across the table with one hand and cupped the side of his face, attempting to comfort him since she could see that his heart ached for her and for the terrible things that she had had to endure as she said very softly. "An inquisitive mind is never something to be ashamed of. So don't worry about my feelings. I understand why you need the information and do not hold your need task questions against you."


	13. Chapter 13

After dinner, Toshinori politely thanked Mizuki for the meal and even stood outside of her apartment door, watching her with an indulgent look on his face as she pulled several tupperware containers out of her cabinet and fixed him some food to take home with him since he had accidentally let it slip earlier during dinner that he rarely managed to eat anything homecooked. What with him being a bachelor and all.

Upon being handed a plastic bag full of said containers, he couldn't help but smile indulgently at her as she politely bid him goodnight and safe journey.

Despite the heaviness of conversation earlier the two had somehow managed to regain the companionable feeling that had been between them before their more serious talk had occurred. Probably because neither of them wished to know just how much the conversation had left them feeling vulnerable, and upset.

Toshinori could understand this.

In Mizuki's world, which he was now beginning to see was very much like his own in some regards- such vulnerability was a liability that could get you killed. And while she wasn't a pro hero or anything, he knew that she was likely falling back on some sort of emotional training that she had received so that she could partially remain emotionally distant while collecting vital information from him while letting him know what she felt he should about her.

In some ways it was much like a trust exercise. To build trust, one had to take a blind leap of faith. It was a simple matter of give and take, and yet it was so much more. Especially when Toshinori knew deep down that Mizuki likely didn't trust anyone, least of all him just yet.

Of course knowing this made his heart ache even more.

He couldn't imagine- or rather, he didn't _want_ to imagine what sort of things she had been through while growing up to become the way that she was today. He was sure that if he did know...the knowledge would likely, _viciously_ , turn his stomach.

Running a hand though his long-ish golden blond hair, he sighed heavily as he thought about what to do next. The information she had given him about her Jagan ability was interesting. Very, very interesting.

He had never in his life heard of such an ability. So canceling the sparring match between herself, Shota and himself was out. If only to see how her abilities worked up close. However he wasn't totally sure anymore that the spar was absolutely necessary.

There had to be another way to do what needed to be done and see her ability in action.

As it was, once he went before the Hero's Association Committee to speak to them about her, she would be placed on a sort of unknown (only to her) probation period to make sure that she wasn't actually a villain trying to play them so that they would drop their guard around her.

It wasn't as if such a tactic hadn't been used before, after all.

Deciding to drop by another friend's place for a visit before heading home, he turned around and started walking back the way that he had come at a much brisker pace. His only thoughts were to see Nezu since he was on the Hero's Association Committee as well as a principal at U.A high school.

If he could manage to get the mutant dog to hear him out about some of the special circumstances of Mizuki's arrival and background then perhaps he could see to it that instead of some sort of lengthy probation period, she could be placed under his watchful eye.

But the only way that that would be happening was if she wound up going to U.A as a student.

And yeah, maybe she was a little bit too old for hero training, but since she already knew how to wield her power- maybe she could be a student teacher or something? Her knowledge of the world and how a villains mind worked could come in handy at some point down the road.

Even he would be the first to admit that much.

Especially if said knowledge was incorporated into a lesson for the students that she could be helping to teach.

* * *

Nezu was in the middle of his pre recorded soaps when he smelled Toshinori coming up the hall of the apartment complex towards his door. Sighing because he had had a long day of work today, and because he didn't exactly appreciate being disturbed when he was watching his soaps before bed, he paused the video and went to open the door before the man could knock so that he could see what had brought him around to his neck of the woods so late.

Jumping up slightly, he twisted the knob on his door and let it swing open a little bit just as Toshinori was raising his hand to knock on his door.

Freezing, because he didn't exactly know what had just happened, and hoping fervently that the door wasn't broken, he waited until Nezu poked his furry pinkish little face out at him before doing a double take. What the- Why was Nezu's fur pink?

"Nezu?"

"Yes."

"Nothing I was just checking. May I come in? There are a few things in which I would like to speak with you about."

"Of course, come in my friend." The little...dog/bear/mutated mouse said as he stepped back some to allow Toshinori into his home before asking him if he would like something to drink. Toshi politely turned him down and tried badly not to gawk at the normally snow white furred creature as he took in the patches of pink on one arm, but not the other before finally asking Nezu, "W-What happened to your fur?"

Nezu paused half way across the living room of his home for a moment, a low growl escaping him in his annoyance at being reminded of what had happened to him earlier today on his way home. His fur bristled slightly as his ire built and he spat, "Damned Peta."

"Peta?" Toshi muttered to himself with a small frown as he thought, _The animal activist group? What the hell did they do to him? Then again knowing Nezu as I do- what the hell did he do to them for ruining his fur? You know what, on second thought, never mind._

"Come sit down, Toshi. I have a feeling that you will be here for a while."

"You're probably right," Toshinori said as he made his way over to one of Nezu's chairs and took a seat before saying, "First of all, thank you for seeing me like this. I know that you dislike being disturbed after work like this. But I wanted to speak to you immediately and putting it off would have only made things more difficult since I might have forgotten what it was that I wished to speak to you about..."


End file.
